Victorian farmhouse life

Trespasses

“History is a symphony of echoes heard and unheard. It is a poem with events as verses.” ~ Charles Angoff

It was built long ago
A home of yesteryear
Didn’t start out looking this way
Many lives began and ended here
It’s been a long time since anyone cared
All the children now grown and gone
No one left to carry on
The family farm

If walls could talk they’d tell you stories

She was born long ago
Had people to see, things to do,
She was in the know
Been a while since she’s done anything
Except watch the clock
Tick tock tick tock

Wants to be anywhere
But here
Wants to be anything
But old

No one left to talk to but the four walls

Piece by piece day by day
It falls apart as time decays
No one wants a home that’s falling down
Sell the land,
Build mcmansions, strip malls; a town

When you’re old
You’ve got nothing new to say
Life’s not for the dying
They just get in the way

Old houses and old people
Need love inside or fall
They’ve felt the sunshine and the rain
They’ve sheltered love and harbored pain

Old houses and old people
Are left empty shells
Walls hold echoes of the past
Memories far outlast
Old houses and old people
Growing old alone is hell.

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Speechless. Deborah, you share my love {and sadness} for dying old houses – and what a touching comparison to human old age. Just beautiful, my dear. That house! Oh my! I love all the architectural detail…and that gorgeous staircase! Is this house near where you live?

Call me crazy ~ but I’d buy that ol’ girl in a heartbeat if I had the money to bring her back to her former beauty. She is really beautiful ~ we have home that looks similar to her in my town (which by the way is chock full of McMansions) I am taking a walk thru with my realtor on Saturday and hoping her interior isn’t too far gone ~ wish us luck. Lovely thought provoking post.

This was really beautiful and how old houses and old people are so similar and left empty shells,
Sad but true. What beautiful pictures, I can just picture what it was in it’s day and what went on in it!

That was just beautiful, Deborah. Lovely poem, and lovely house. Why do people let such beautiful old places just sit and rot away like that? So many people today want the new and latest thing, and forget about the old and let it waste away. So sad. I wish we had the money to buy an old home to fix up, but alas, we do not. We live in a new house, but I dream of owning an old home with history that was built with love, not just to make a buck. But we will continue to live in our new home, and give her character and love and not let it get sad and decrepit.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Beth.

What a beautiful old house. I would love to know the history, to hear the laughter of the family that lived here. The many stories their lives could tell. You have done a marvelous job in preserving it in pictures for future memories.
Molly

You touched a soft place in my heart with this beautifully haunting poem.
There is so much sad truth in your words.
We embrace things that are old and vintage for our houses, while we dismiss our elderly population. How sad is this?

There is so much to learn from them. My Ma Galloway used to tell the best stories and most of them were about her life with Pa in the early days of their marriage in the late 1800’s.

The photographs of the house are breathtaking!! I can tell she was once a grand old gal.
That curving staircase is gorgeous.

Deborah,
Please tell me you went inside?!?!? I would love to see pictures! They are re-doing a great big house around the corner from me and it has a beautiful staircase in the front, sometimes they leave the door open and oh-boy it’s hard for me to resist taking a peek! Matt said I was crazy, we can’t keep up with the one we have in the other one is in much worse shape.

Oh, Deborah, what an old beauty she is! Wish someone would fix her up, she deserves it. i love, love old houses & have never lived in one. Don’t think I have the stamina to do it now, but I admire those who do.

This house reminds me SO much of the one I blogged about earlier this year, here in Wilsonville, AL:

That is truely a beautiful house. I love all the details, my real dream home. I remember being on a trip with my mom and two of her friends, I was about 16, we went to visit my sister at Keuka college. On a drive we happened upon an abandoned mansion, it was huge, there were holes in the sides and windows broken in. We peaked in the windows but did not dare go in, I will always wish I had the guts to go inside to see it all, it was an amazing building, an old home.

In answer to your question, all of my cloches have come from either TJMax or Marshalls, I don’t think I have paid more than 24.00 even for my large one. I just check every once in a while. Thank you for the comment. Then next ones will be decorated for Halloween.
I would love to see your arbor too. I love them in the winter with a fresh fallen snow. Those southerners and westerners don’t know what they are missing if they have never seen a beautiful snowfall, almost like never seeing a sunrise or sunset on the water. Have a great weekend.

I’m mesmerized by your words and your images, magical and moving. This house is just amazing, I can just see it renovated and reborn. Thank you for linking up today with VIF, this is a very special post, and so nice to meet you!
xo,
Debra

Hi Deborah. This old house is so lovely, I pray someone saves it from destruction. It just breaks my heart to think of old home like this one perishing from lack of love. 😦

So glad you like my fall decor, it was so fun putting it together. 🙂 I enjoy fall SO much, the richness of the colors, the crispness in the air and all those wonderful apple recipes! I like to get my fall decorating finished early, because I start decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving! 🙂

Beautiful writing & photos, Deborah. I love history, old houses & older people. Hey – I’m not too far from being considered old myself. 🙂
My dad tells the most amazing stories from the late 1920s and on – I feel so fortunate to hear them firsthand.

That is why I never want to leave my 102 year old house. I am afraid it would be left to die alone. If I was independently wealthy I would buy it and fix it up. That house could be amazing…….The details, oh the details.
Beautiful post.

Very lovely! When I rented my first apt., it was in an old mansion that had been broken up into separate units. In spite of that, it was a great old house to live in. Most of the charm was still intact in the different apartments. Then I moved away and heard that the church next door bought the house, tore it down and expanded their parking lot. That made my heart ache a little for sure!

Oh another lover of old homes. I drive my husband crazy when I see an abandoned old house and tell him – oh she could be so beautiful. He sees the wheels spinning and gets scared but he says when we are done with the work – he is happy that we fixed it.
Where is this house? I hope someone saves her- yes she needs work but that just makes her more treasured once you are done with it.
tammy

Wonderful words to go with the achingly beautiful portraits of this grand old lady. Why is that we in North America abandon our old buildings? I’ve never seen a ghost town in Europe, or an old house with broken windows and falling down walls. Your photo of the front foyer was so sad – such entries and exits that the doorway must have seen.
I look forward to reading about what you learn in your research on this lovely old place.

It breaks my heart clean in two to see a house like that living unloved. Imagine all the chicken dinners that have been served there. Imagine all the tears, heartaches, joys and love that house has known. I hope someone will love it back to life very soon –

I’ll echo the hopes of all the others, that someone who can afford to take it on finds it before it’s too late! It’s so sad when people let such great architecture waste away. Does it seem to you that all houses are “ladies”? Maybe it’s because we always hear about the “painted ladies” victorians in SF out here.
Hugs,
Dawn

Lovely tribute to a fine old lady. I kind of just want to give her a hug (and a paint job…and some roof supports…and a termite inspection…and a new porch…and…). I couldn’t agree with you more…”pave paradise, put up a parking lot.” I’d hate to see her go the way of the strip mall or McMansion. Ugh.

I(FINALLY!) took a photo this weekend of the park at the end of my block that’s on the postcard you sent. Amazing how little things have changed, all things considered. Can’t wait to show you…if I could only find the camera cord (I am a mess lately, honestly. 🙂 Hope you had a terrific summer! And HOW can it be fall this week…

Love this post! It brought tears to my eyes. Loving that gorgeous house too. It is too bad that it is in such disarray. I would love to find a home like that and bring it back to it’s splendor. Oh the possibilities. My husband would probably think I have totally gone off the deep end though!

Deb, I thought I commented on this the first day it was posted…I obviously didn’t! This is so beautiful, and sad…sigh. That house is amazing and I love picturing it’s history; if I wasn’t trying to restore an old house now, I’d come down and swoop that one up; give it some love myself!

Oh I’m so glad you stopped by to tell me of your poem! What an amazing old house with so many stories to tell & your poem was gorgeous. Comparing getting old whether houses or humans…a perfect analogy. And really…that house, LOVE it. The staircase itself leaves me dreaming of ‘what was’.
Thank you friend, I loved my visit!
Hugs,
Susie

Everytime I see a house like this, I think what you so eloquently put into words. It breaks my heart to see this, but it is also bittersweet to think about the joy and happiness it brought at one time…I look forward to learning more.